The Pact
by thejollyape
Summary: Relatively straightforward Officer Lunchbox fic taking season five in a new direction, because I need a distraction while I wait for the real season five to play out. Gail becomes an unwilling TO. Holly makes friends with Traci. And Superintendent Mom is- Superintendent Mom.
1. Chapter 1

_a/n: I got a prompt to write more Holly/Traci interaction. I think that one brief scene in episode 5x02 had the entire fandom moony eyed, because of the potential of those two becoming not just badass crime-solvers but friends too. Especially while they're both dating Pecks. Also I think we'll be needing some fanon Officer Lunchbox to get through the next few weeks of canon. Something tells me this is going to hurt even more than it already has. So this is me trying to pull my weight while trying to not succumb to creys. It's not going to be impressively long, it won't update regularly, but I planned it out over the weekend and now I'm slowly typing it out. If you enjoy, then yay._

* * *

Even the winds blowing through the open car windows of the parked squad car were hot. Summer had come early and summer came hard, turning the city into a foul smelling pit of melting asphalt and frantically whirling air conditioners. As a result people got more human, each bead of sweat taking them one step away from logic and one step closer to some primordial asshattery. Or at least that was Gail's take on things. A disposition not helped by non-breathing kevlar, sticky polyester and a squad-car making weird metallic clunks at every left turn. Not to mention the Rookie sitting next to her. Most of her ill will towards the impressively stupid humanity probably sprung from being saddled with this...this body-spray scented ball of nervous energy and insecure ramblings. Worst of all was that he was so obnoxiously present she couldn't even successfully ignore him, despite having a lot of experience in ignoring people. Silently she cursed Andy for disappearing on yet another undercover mission and leaving her to train the boy. Granted it was Oliver who'd put her as his new TO, but it was Andy she blamed. Yeah, she had no problems admitting she was still holding a grudge, mostly because...well it was comfortable. But even that wasn't the end of her troubles, because the undercover opportunity caused her mother make a reappearance in her life after many quiet months. Elaine Peck simply couldn't understand why she hadn't jumped on the chance and pushed to be part of the undercover operation that now saw the division missing both McNally and the recently recovered Chloe. You didn't simply explain to Superintendent Peck that maybe your private life had more of a pull than the ambition to bolster a resume. That wasn't in her mother's emotional range to comprehend. Which meant many long and nagging conversations. No, this summer wasn't off to a good start for Gail Peck.

Drumming her fingers against the steering wheel she ignored this and the sweat she could feel making its way down her temple. As a distraction she let her eyes scan the neighborhood slowly and meticulously. Until finally she couldn't stand it any longer.

'-it's not like it's a big thing with the-' Duncan rambles on, wiping repeatedly at his pale, sweaty upper lip.

'Why are you talking, Rookie?' she asks him, fingers wrapped around the wheel and eyes staring off into the distance.

'I-' he starts.

'No, don't talk,' she tells him as she turns in her seat to face him, the leather complaining loudly as she moves her sweaty body. 'We-' she motions her hand between them. 'Don't talk.'

She glares at him and he looks back at her with his mouth half-way open. 'I can see you don't really understand what I'm trying to say here, so I'm going to make it as simple as possible without using stick figures and a nursery rhyme.' She looks back out at the mostly abandoned street. 'You sit still, you don't talk, you keep your sweat on your side of the car and you listen to the radio. And you don't look at me.'

'But-'

'No, Gerald you're not listening.'

'Duncan,' he tries to correct her.

She cranes her neck and stares at him silently for a very awkward amount of time, glaring.

'No moving, no talking, no looking.'

He opens his mouth to reply, but as she narrows her eyes he changes his mind and gives her a quick nod before staring out the window with a frown, scratching at his sweaty scalp until he catches a look of her out of the corner of his eyes and immediately stops.

Satisfied she smiles widely. 'Now we're making progress.'

The radio takes that moment to intrude with a general message of 'This is Dispatch calling available units. Possible 10-45 at 25 Grange Avenue.'

Gail reaches over and picks up the radio. "Dispatch, this is 1534 current location Huron Street. We'll check it out."

'10-4, 1534. Neighbour, Samantha Dwight in the downstairs apartment called it in. Found the body after investigating the smell. EMTs dispatched.'

'10-4. Over and out.'

'Can I talk now?' Duncan asks as she drops the radio and guns the engine.

'No.'


	2. Chapter 2

_a/n: I'm letting them totally abuse their radios, but to be honest anyone who has ever worked with a radio system knows it takes 3 months for proper etiquette to disintegrate completely. _

* * *

'Of course she leaves me with the smell,' he complains to himself as he stands guard over the dead man. 'Can't trust you to talk to the neighbors, better stay with the body were you can't screw up,' he mimics in a higher voice, pouting the whole time. He shot the body a sideways glance, but didn't let his eyes linger on the gorey mess they'd stumbled onto a couple of hours prior. After calming the freaked out neighbor they'd done a full sweep of the apartment and found it empty except of course for the man sprawled out unmoving on his side, his face a mask of unnatural pale waxiness partly obscured by a large pool of blood. You didn't have to be a doctor to realise the man was very dead and had been for some time before they showed up. The smell alone was pretty telling. 'This stinks,' he complains. 'Dead dude stinks.' He grimaces.

'Yep, the heat will do that to a dead body,' Holly interrupts his solitary musings as she steps past the Officer guarding the entrance of the apartment and into the room. She places her fieldkit on the floor before retying her hair into a tighter ponytail. 'One of the more noticeable side-effects of decomposition,' she tells him with a smile.

'Doctor Stewart,' he greets her and reflexively stand up a little straighter.

'Were you first on the scene-' she made a quick double check of his nametag. 'Officer Moore?' she asks as she bends down to get a closer look at the twisted up and indeed very smelly body.

'Yes, ma'am. Found him just like that, ma'am. Didn't touch nothing, ma'am.'

She looks over at him and slowly quirks an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything. Instead she pulls out a pair of latex gloves and silently wrangles her hands into the blue rubber confines.

'Has the body been cleared and documented?' she eventually asks as she leans down next to the corpse.

'Yes, ma'am,' he replies almost before she's had time to finish her question.

She shakes her head smiling before pushing gently at the body until the dead man comes to rest fully on his back. 'No rigor,' she comments. Brown eyes then study his torso with great intensity, taking in the excessive repetition of what looks to be similar wounds littering the man's chest from neck to groin, mentally taking note of the bloody tatter that had once been a faintly yellow shirt. Watching silently for a few minutes before she takes out a camera and starts documenting the scene for her own benefit. Satisfied she's got enough shots in to be make her final autopsy report and subsequent testifying as accurate as possible she begins to carefully pat the body down. Recognising a familiar object in the pocket of his slacks she removes his wallet. Still hunched over she leans back and flips it open, comparing the picture of the driver's license with the slightly distorted features of the deceased.

'If you need an ID,' she tells Duncan before throwing him the wallet. The rookie fumbles, but finally catches the wallet before it hits the ground.

'S'cool, we on top,' he says and points to one of the walls covered in picture frames, several of them containing the dead man. 'Neighbor IDed him. Dead dude is Mark Jeffries, he owns the place,' he tells her with a certain undeniable pride in his voice. Undoubtedly very proud of his policing. Still he pulls out a plastic evidence bag from one of his pockets and bags the object.

Holly just gives him a nod before continuing her initial visual examination.

Duncan tries to look casual as he watches her do her job, struggling to not look at her too closely, not wanting to notice the way the heat has made her t-shirt stick to her like a second skin. The Doctor was good looking, but like on a scene and with a body- he was icking himself out a little…and the moment his eyes began to stray his radio comes to life and startles both him and Holly.

'You better still be with the body, Gerald.'

Heart still beating wildly from the small scare he fumbles before he hits the talk button. 'Affirmative,' he croaks in reply.

'Have the Detectives showed up yet?' she asks.

He shakes his head, but then remembers she can't see him. 'No.' After a small pause of crackling static he adds, 'But the forensic lady is here'.

His comment makes Holly look up at him once again with a raised eyebrow, but no comment.

His radio remains silent for a few moments before Gail's sharp reply comes through. 'The forensic lady?'

Holly can't help to chuckle at her tone.

'Eh, Doctor Stewart,' he adds with a wince.

'I don't know what badly structured American TV program your parents raised you in front of, but at Fifteen we show respect,' her annoyed voice tells him off. 'Tell the Doctor you're sorry, Gerald.'

'Yes, ma'am,' he quickly replies into his radio before looking over at Holly. 'I'm sorry, ma'am.'

A smiling Holly stands up and takes off her gloves. 'It's fine,' she assures him with a smile. 'You're not wrong, I am the forensic lady,' she adds. 'Or one of them at least.'

'I don't think Officer Peck likes me,' he shares with her in a hushed voice as if he's worried Peck might be hiding behind any visible door.

Shaking her head Holly gives him a sympathetic smile that turns into an amused one as his radio comes to life once again.

'Trust me, Bald Beavis. If you didn't tell her you were sorry and meant it- I will know and your life will suck from this day until forever.'

Holly can't help herself, but to Duncan's complete surprise presses down on the send button of his radio. 'He said it and he meant it,' she informs Gail before releasing it and moving back to her fieldkit.

'Holly, stop distracting my Rookie. And Rookie, stop being distracted by Doctor Stewart.' The last part a warning that sounded a lot like a threat.

'10-4.' he replies still a little flustered.

'And if it's not too much for your pea-sized brain to remember, let me know when the Detectives do show up.'

'Okay.'

When the radio remained silent for a couple of minutes he exhaled slowly and seemed to relax. 'I miss McNally,' he mumbles to himself.

Holly looks at him, but says nothing. Instead she takes a small walk around the apartment, not part of her job persay, but she'd never regretted being thorough before and she doubted she would start now.

'You all good, Doc?' Duncan asks her, uncomfortable with the silence.

She smiles briefly at him and gives him a nod.

'You need help with anything?' he continues fidgeting a little nervously with his radio chord.

'I'm done,' she tells him as she studies the wall of photographs up close. 'I thought I'd wait for the Detectives to get here before I get the Coroner to pick up the body.'

As if summoned Traci walks into the apartment with a low whistle. 'Swanky place.' Her eyes silently registering everything around her before she greets them with a nod. 'Duncan,' she acknowledges the Rookie before stepping closer to the body. 'What you got for me, Doctor Stewart?'

Traci doesn't even have time to finish her question before Duncan latches onto his radio. 'The Detective's here.'

'Then get your ass down to the car or I'm leaving without you,' was Gail's clipped response.

With uncertainty and a healthy does of reluctance he looks between the Doctor and the Detective, frowning the frown of the undecided.

'If I were you I'd do what she said. It's a long walk back to fifteen,' Traci tells him with a dead serious expression on her face.

He swallows visibly before giving her a nod and walks, briskly, out the door.

'I don't know which one of them I pity the most. The kid or Gail,' Traci chuckles as he disappears down the stairs.

'I've got a feeling it will be good for both of them,' Holly replies with only a faint note of defensiveness in her voice.

'Please, just make sure she doesn't kill him. We're already down three Officers. We can't afford to lose any more,' Traci begs with a quirked smile.

'You give me too much credit,' Holly answers smiling before heading back to the body. 'What you see is what you get, so far,' she shrugs apologetically as she pulls on a new pair of latex gloves. 'Stab wounds to the torso, I count 8 separate wounds, but it's a mess and I need to get him to the lab to be sure. Cause of death probably due to massive blood loss.' She grabs hold of the man's right arm and shows it to Traci. 'Defensive wounds, so he was definitely aware and met his attacker head on.'

'No signs of a break-in,' Traci muses and looks over to the intact front door still guarded by another uniformed cop.

'Not that I know of. The Rookie and Gail were first on the scene so talk to them,' she answers standing up.

'Anything else you got for me?' she asks.

'Not yet,' she shakes her head a little. 'The heat makes it hard to estimate a time of death so I'll get back to you on that.'

Traci finishes scribbling down her notes before she looks back up at Holly.

'As long as the air conditioner at the lab doesn't give out again I should have something for you by tomorrow,' Holly adds as she grabs her gear and slings it over her shoulder.

'Appreciate it.' Traci smiles. 'To work we go,' she comments in a sing-song voice.


End file.
